CollisionWorks

Actually got some work done today - not as much as I'd like, but more than I figured.


Hooker had to have the hematoma in his ear drained and sutured, and it'll be kinda scarred, but he'll still be cute. He has to wear one of those "cone of silence" things around his neck for at least a week, maybe more, and he's none too pleased about that. But at least he's all okay, and the floppy terrier ear he'll have will probably be quite adorable, like the Little Rascals' dog or something.





So, it's not quite as chilly in the apartment as it was this morning. When it's that cold, the cats just want to lie around like lumps.





Give em a little heat, though, and they're back at attention.





And maybe they're even plotting something crafty.





Now I have to go clean up the mess Hooker makes when he tries to eat wet food from a plate with the plastic cone around his head -- half winds up in his mouth, a quarter on the floor, and a quarter on the plastic cone, with Hooker craning his head around trying to reach the little meaty bits.

I see now (through Google) that there's more obits out now, but for those who haven't heard who might get here first, for whom it matters, Curt Dempster of E.S.T. passed away. I heard about it yesterday but didn't see anything online until this afternoon.


The Times obit is here.


There's more about the man available easily through a search, including plenty of interest I didn't know.


He will be missed in the community.

Three things going on right now that I've either seen all or some of and would like to recommend.


First, I saw Stolen Chair Theatre Company's Kill Me Like You Mean It at The Red Room last night, and it was excellent. It's a combination of film noir and Ionesco-style absurdism done with incredible sensitivity to tone and rhythm.

I came for the noir - director Jon Stancato did an email interview with me on the company's blog as part of a series of interviews with people who've done noir on stage - but I was made rapt by the absurdism. Lovely script by Kiran Rikhye (created in collaboration with the company).

The company is altogether very good (must repeat: beautiful tone and rhythm), but Cameron J. Oro is a wonder as American Private Investigator Ben Farrell; pitch-perfect, doing immense amounts with an accurate-to-the-style deadpan.

It plays four more times, tonight and next weekend, and it's selling out. If you're interested, tickets are available through smarttix.com. Get em quick.

I met with Jon for coffee before the show and had a nice talk about noir for the stage, and the problems of people assuming parody where none was intended (and the discomfort of getting excellent reviews that entirely miss the point of the show), as well as stories about the grade school we turned out to share in common (where he teaches now). Any problems with the show? Sure, but nothing that probably matters to anyone other than another director (I'm hard, as I always say, on scene changes). Good show. Wish I'd seen Stolen Chair's earlier work, but I'll get to the rest from here on.


Berit and I were hired last week to be the stage manager/running tech crew on a show in the CULTUREMART festival at HERE, but unfortunately, due to issues beyond the control of either B&I or the show's creators, we wound up unable to do it. We attended one rehearsal, however, enough to see an very interesting work happening -- we supervised a line-through and watched the musical numbers rehearsed -- and we're looking forward to seeing the show next weekend.

It's Wickets, by Jenny Rogers and Clove Galilee, adapted from Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes, and featuring one of our favorite actresses, Moira Stone (our contact for the job in the first place). We were looking forward to working on this potentially amazing work - oh, well - and it'll be good to see it next week. We're seeing the last show of four, so I won't be able to promote it after. Again, what we saw looked REALLY promising, and we're looking froward to seeing it. Check the links for more info on the show and tickets.


Finally, I've been blessed with the beginning of this year with an actual position on staff at The Brick theater - Facilities Manager.

First company/show I got to work with has been Inverse Theater and their new production of The Death of Griffin Hunter by Kirk Wood Bromley. I'm also an Associate Member of Inverse who's acted in Bromley's plays several times (The Burnt Woman of Harvard in 1993 and 2001, Want's Unwisht Work in 1996, Midnight Brainwash Revival in 2001 and . . . 2003, was it?), so it's great to see Inverse/Bromley and The Brick come together.

I saw the original production of this one, and thought that at it's core it was one of Kirk's better plays, but that it was indeed a bit too long (Kirk gets this criticism a lot, and I often disagree with it, but not on the original production of this one). I hear the show's been rewritten to be shorter and sharper. The members of the cast that I know are all great, and I saw the first 15 minutes at the final dress, which looked excellent. I'll be seeing it next weekend, most likely, and I recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you've never seen an actual production of one of Kirk's modern verse dramas.


Oh, and not only, but also -- my favorite movie ever, David Lynch's Eraserhead, is screening in a brand-new restored 35mm print at the Museum of Modern Art. Berit has been waiting to see this film until she could see it on film on the big screen, and, despite the excellent DVD that Lynch put out a couple of years ago, that's probably a good idea (I've only seen it projected in a good print once, at the Bleecker Street Cinema in 1989 or so). Nathan Lee writes a nice piece in the Voice here about his past with the film that strikes more than a few familiar chords with me.

Three more screenings after today. See it if you haven't. I think we're going on Monday.

Well, I don't think Hooker completely has his sight back (he loses it during epileptic fits), but he's up and moving around and seems okay -- I hope he'll clean himself off soon; he's rather icky and stinky still.


So, I'm relaxed enough to go ahead with a Random Ten for the day. The iPod stands at 19,054 songs, 65 GBs. What comes up?


1. "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" - Phluph - Phluph

Dylan cover from next-to-unknown late-60s Psychedelia band. Not a psych-style cover, though, kinda peppy and upbeat for them. Funny. Actually does point up the humor of Dylan a bit more.


2. "La Bamba" - Dusty Springfield - Dusty volume 2

Rather kitschy. Not Dusty's most shining moment, though, as always, she sings great. Eventually I'll cull out the lesser Dusty tracks -- right now I just have all of them on here, without judgment. Oooh, very "Vegas" ending; yeah, this'll go at some point.


3. "Simon Says" - The Shangri-Las - Myrmidons of Melodrama

Nice early R&B single from the Queens girls before Shadow Morton grabbed them and changed their whole sound and act. Didn't know they could rock like this until I got this comp (finally! after years of waiting for a good Shangri-Las comp, though this one is from the UK with a smart-ass name and liner notes far far more interested in the lives of the girls and the record business rather than the music).


4. "Misery Goats" - Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero (1980-1982)

Great spiky track from the tail part of the first, "classic," Ubu period. No idea what LP this is on originally right now, as the Datapanik box just puts all the tracks in order across several CDs . Love Ubu, but don't have all of my fave tracks in the iPod, as some of them just don't work on random.


5. "This World" - World Party - Egyptology

Lovely airy pop-R&B number. Only listened to this album for the first time last year when putting songs into the iTunes. Tim Cusack bought me this album as somewhat of a joke when it came out in 1997, as I was directing him in Richard Foreman's play with the same title as the album at the time. Didn't look like my bag, so I filed it and never listened to it. Pulled it out to check when going through all the CDs and discovered a handful - two handfuls, actually - of good tracks to put into the massive randomizer. Lesson there.


6. "Dis-Nous Dylan" - Les Five Gentlemen - Pebbles volume 12 - The World

"Il est un vietnik." No idea what they're saying for most of this, but they're asking Dylan (and {ahem} Donovan) to speak and sing to them of important things. Silly, amusing pop.


7. "Santa Dog" - Poxy Boggards - Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents

Excellent acoustic cover from a Residents tribute CD, based mainly on the '72 version, maybe a bit on the '78 one, too. Suddenly it's a traditional folk song.


8. "I'm Trouble" - Sado-Nation - Sado-Nation 7" EP

Punk on the edge of Power Pop. Terrific.


9. "Raide Raide Raide" - Les Innocents - Post-Partum

Pleasant French folk-pop I got somewhere, no idea where. No idea also when it's from. Pretty.


10. "It's My Pride" - The Guess Who - Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond, Vol. 3

UK garage rock, late-60s. Young, loud, and snotty. Gotta love it.


Okay, stuff to do today and stuff I want to write later. Got to get going, got to check on the cat.

NIAGARA FALLS!


So, we were there at New Year's. Canadian side. A wedding -- Berit's second cousin. The wedding was December 30, so we stayed another couple of days to spend the year change at Niagara Falls.


Some photos from the time, taken by Berit's dad, Gary:




So, there we are at the Horseshoe Falls, and while Berit and I aren't exactly fashion plates or models at the best of times, this is a fairly unflattering photo (and there's a worse one*). Possibly being soaking wet (we had just walked through the massive spray), quite cold, and trying to look cheery for the camera have something to do with it.

Despite the cool, it was a pleasant afternoon/evening at The Falls. We wouldn't say the area around The Falls was exactly our bag, but it was fascinating.

As I mentioned briefly before, Berit and I concluded that the main drag going uphill (pretty much across from the American Falls) was a strange combo of Times Square, Reno, and Coney Island, and probably close to what the developers currently are working on transforming Coney Island into -- certainly not what the conceptual drawings look like, but as the real place will look after a few years wear & tear & dirt get to it.

Like Coney, your attention is drawn to a massive ferris wheel towering over everything else:




Though you may not be able to tell from the photo, this is actually CONSIDERABLY bigger than the huge Wonder Wheel at Coney.

The drag is a row of chain restaurants, t-shirt & tchotchke shops, fast food joints, corporate entertainment tie-in rides and stores (MGM, Disney, WWF, etc.), specialty "museums" (Ripley's, Guinness Book, Lego), some sad-looking wax museums (the "Hollywood" one had a terrifying Sarcophagus and Snake animatronic duo in front that would come to life and deliver unfunny one-liners in sad "Middle Eastern" accents), and other carnival style attractions.

This included three (count 'em, THREE!) haunted-house rides, one of which, we discovered ("Frankenstein's Spooky Castle!") was attached to, and tied-in with, the familiar burger purveyor next door:




I was simply stunned and confused by the sight of an immense Frankenstein's Monster, chained, holding a Whopper (I can't say "enjoying;" he didn't look all that happy). Berit provided the voice of his thoughts:


"Once . . . Ovitz take me call . . . now, me shill burger . . . [sigh] . . . Tempora! Mores!"


After drinks at a sports bar and dinner at a Ruby Tuesday, we toddled back to The Falls for the promised 9.30 pm fireworks as it started raining. The cold and wet began to really get to us, but the Falls were beautiful -- we could see both the American and Canadian sides, glowing.

Gary asked Berit and I how the lighting was being done, and we were stumped for some time -- there were no apparent light sources for the glow on the Falls (which also changed colors every few minutes). It almost looked like the lights were BEHIND the Falls, an impossible rig. We thought maybe they were below us in the ravine, where we couldn't see them, when we turned a corner . . .




. . . and there were the giant spots. An impressive throw, we had to say. Walking by closer, we got to see the color scroller units -- self-contained, each at least six foot high, one in front of each spot like a row of Kubrickian monoliths. Whoa.

We wound up walking to the car, the desire to see fireworks outweighed by the cold and damp, passing the stage where Foreigner was playing -- "Cold As Ice," appropriately. Earlier I had heard "I Want To Know What Love Is" and wondered why a Foreigner cover band would be playing at New Year's in Niagara Falls, Ontario. I got somewhat of an answer to that question, though it more importantly opened the further question of why Foreigner would be playing at New Year's in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

We got to the car, Foreigner stopped playing, and the fireworks started (of course). We rushed down to the cliff edge, the fireworks hidden mostly by spray, but by the time we got there, they were over. Five minutes tops.

So, we got out of there, and back to the B&B in Niagara-On-The-Lake.

Earlier that day, on our way to The Falls, we stopped by the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory:




Which was actually quite something. Thousands of them - forty species - all around you in a tropical landscape. Many of them sitting there calmly so you could get right up to them for a good look.




And earlier, we went to downtown Niagara-On-The-Lake (home of The Shaw Festival) and puttered around the stores. One shop was full of amusing Xmas kitsch; ornaments, lights, and the like. We considered some of the novelty shaped lights -- they might have come in handy in a show sometime, but not worth getting without a specific purpose.

Many of the ornaments were of odd themes and/or materials. Why would you want THESE on your tree? A number were made out of S'mores -- that is, they featured marshmallow figures painted and dressed in the gear of various hobbies (a gambler, a hockey player, an ice fisherman), on a chocolate and graham-cracker base. This was . . . odd . . . enough, but the kicker was this:




Yup. A Nativity creche done in the medium of S'More.

The more we looked at this the more amusing it got (and no, it was not created with any kind of "knowing" humor or irony). WHO was this MADE for? Who would maybe have the aesthetic sense to find this charming or amusing honestly who would not be offended by The Marshmallow Messiah? Okay, yes, plenty, probably, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Literally! In foodstuff form!

So, Gary had to get it (it had been marked down MANY times) and I made sure he would send me a picture.

So, home by train on January 1st and back to figuring out what's next. Some things have come up. More on that soon.


**********


* conversation as Berit looked over this before posting:

B: Wait, you're linking to that even worse photo of us? I look like a troll!

I: I look worse than you.

B: Two wrongs don't make a right!

I: I think it's sweet. It's us.

B: (depressed) We're homely . . .
Good. Encouragement for our diet/exercise plan.

Woke up, got online, shuffled the iPod (takes a while; now at 18,503 songs - I worked on culling out lousy ones from comps I put on there en masse), and here's what came out:


1. "Calypso Bop" - The Emanons - Jungle Exotica

One of a million good, cool, obscure '60s instrumentals. A bit distinguished by the (vaguely) calypso beat.


2. "Thoughts and Words" - The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday

Lovely song -- I'm a little put off by the odd swing into a major-key chorus, but it's okay. I used to have a strange, unreasonable dislike of this group, based entirely on "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn Turn Turn." I've gotten over that, not least because The Byrds went through so many lineup/stylistic changes, it's hard to just say you have a blanket dislike for them -- maybe for a certain version of them, but for everything they did?

Some funny backwards guitar on the break . . . oh, and on the final chorus repeat now and outchorus. Kinda out of place but it works somehow.


3. "Caroline" - The Fortunes - Beat of the Pops 01

From another downloaded comp of pop songs. Not quite "Walk Like a Man" on the intro, but an incredible simulation. Dopey. Almost bubblegum, but without any of the interesting production you usually find in bubblegum music. Completely by-the-numbers. Not calculated, I think these guys mean it, but they don't seem to have an original bone in their bodies.

Short, at least - 1:59. Worth keeping just for variety.


4. "Save Your Kisses for Me" - Brotherhood of Man - Bubblegum Classics Volume 2

Ah, speaking of bubblegum music! Here's how you do a fun, silly pop song. Massive stereo separation, beautifully-recorded drums (great full kick drum sound!), "Penny Lane"-imitative horns (all over on the left channel), syrupy but PRECISE strings.

Oooh. Damn it ends on a cheesoid lyrical/musical conceit. Okay, that sours the whole thing somewhat. Ick.


5. "Mask of Death" - J. Trombey - Dawn of the Dead

Stock library cue used by George Romero in the 1979 movie - someone online put together a great comp of all the library tracks he used into an alternate soundtrack (as opposed to the one that just has the original score tracks by Goblin).

Trying to remember where this track shows up in the film. I think it's when the heroes are refilling the helicopter at the deserted airport before getting to the mall.

Oh, there's a second bit to it that's definitely the first scene where they're checking out the stores in the mall.

And now a third section used in another place in the film. Romero really chopped this one up to use well in three or more places. Actually this one's a bit long and sedate to keep on the iPod - I need to have it somewhere as potential backing for a show, but it's not much to listen to in this context.


6. "Blarney's Stoned" - Alan Hawkshaw - The Sound Gallery Volume One

On the other hand, here's exactly the kind of instrumental to keep. Late '60s UK jazz-pop. Love this stuff.


7. "Darts of Pleasure" - Franz Ferdinand - Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei

Oh, goodness gracious, something by an actual current rock band of some repute and popularity! There goes my cool hipster rep!

I like this band, though I only have this song by them and have heard a handful of others (one of them is in our Dance Dance Revolution game and tends to get stuck in Berit's and my heads). Got this from what appears to have been the soundtrack to some German film - it had LOTS of good tracks of many styles/periods. B & I always say we have to get more by them, but we never get around to it.


8. "Mary" - Brazilian Bitles - Antologia

As their name might suggest, a '60s group from Brazil specializing in Beatles covers (or Beatles-style songs) in Portuguese. Actually pretty good. This one is "I've Just Seen a Face" ("Mary" takes the place of "falling"). Probably lyrically nothing to do with the original, of course. Yeah, nicely done.


9. "Gee Girl" - Andy Kim - Bubblegum Classics Volume 5

Jeez, what is this with the easy-listening mix this morning? This is another fun bubblegum song, but damn I'd like something with some balls for chrissake!

Actually a rather pretty one, with a simple, elegant arrangement. But come on, yesterday on the train I had a great mix of stuff that included songs like this with Frank Zappa, The Stooges, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, and The Yardbirds. Where's some of that?


10. "I Am the Walker" - The Creation - How Does It Feel to Feel?

Well, not here, but close. It's a "nugget" and I dug it.

A bit busy, really, lots of ideas in search of a song -- feels like two different "verse" ideas spliced together with a chorus from somewhere else. Oh, really pretty outchorus.


Well, enough of that. Got a few more posts to get to, and a big housecleaning to do before the parents come by tomorrow. Whee.

Well, here I am with no access to cat photos I haven't posted before, so instead some You Tube videos and links to share wit alla yez:







I was turned on to some of the above through a newer website for some of us "cute thing" fans, Cute Things Falling Asleep.

I also still constantly check Cute Overload.

Enjoy.

And rum.


And this holiday has been great, but for the loss of one of my idols . . .


The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business --
Mr. Please Please Please --
Soul Brother #1 --
The Minister of Super Heavy Funk --
Mr. Dynamite --
THE GODFATHER OF SOUL -- !


Mr. James Brown, goddammit.


Two things. 1) In all the obits I've seen and heard thus far, his influence has been talked about, on and on, and he's been given credit for his showmanship etc. etc., but no one has BOTHERED to use the words SONGWRITER or even the deserved COMPOSER to describe the man.


(okay, just looked, the Times says "songwriter" right up front, good, but not enough given all else I've seen)


The man WROTE and ARRANGED that revolutionary music, and should be appreciated as the ARTIST who did that, not just the SHOWMAN standing there performing it (well, "standing there" is no way to ever describe James . . . uh, "movin' like a motherfucker," then). I never saw the man live, and I will regret that forever. I had the chance several times in the late 80s when I was at NYU and he played the Lone Star, but I always blew it off and figured I'd get to it later. Damn. (a friend of mine went to the Lone Star without me once and wound up sitting below James as he danced on the bar -- he felt blessed to have been covered in James' sweat)


2. My favorite JB story. The Governor of Georgia once called James "Georgia's Ambassador to the World." As a result, a few years later, in one of James' run-ins with the law, his lawyer tried to get him off on the grounds of "diplomatic immunity." Personally, I think the judge should have given it on the basis of chutzpah.


As for Xmas, it's been GREAT this year. It's been a long time since I got gifts that made me feel like a little kid getting what he wanted ("TOYS!"), but getting the 80 gig iPod did it for me (thanks Dad and Ivy!), as it did for Berit getting the jigsaw she's wanted (thanks again Dad & Ivy!) and the Playstation 2 and Dance Dance Revolution set (thanks Gary and Luana!).


We will now Dance Dance Revolution the Xmas nite away, in honor of James.

So, here I am, away from the usual iTunes with over 18,000 songs, on a laptop with just 1,445 tracks -- most of them oddities that I didn't want to keep anywhere else.


What happens if I shuffle through this bunch?


1. "Shake a Tail Feather" - The Five Du-Tones - Land of 1000 Dances vol. 2

Ah, how nice. Recently downloaded comp, not yet ponged over to the "song" library. Never actually heard this before; just know Ray Charles' cover from the Blues Brothers film and soundtrack.

The original rocks like hell. Jesus. Get ahold of this one, people.


2. "Not Yet Three" - Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Rockin' & Romance

From a cassette I've had for over 20 years recorded from LPs of my dad's. I moved this over to the computer and digitially cleaned it up last year. Nice to have. Sweet, sweet, funny song.

Heard this on WFMU's Greasy Kid Stuff show last year (R.I.P.) in the midst of about two hours of Richman they were playing (it followed, just as I hoped it would, "Just About Seventeen") and was positive he had died or something. No, it was just nearly his birthday. Thank goodness.


3. "Ballad of Mac the Knife" - Original Cast - The Threepenny Opera 1976 Lincoln Center Production

Digitized this from my old vinyl a couple years ago, as it's unlikely to make a CD appearance, unfortunately. My dad and stepmom took me to see this production (directed by Richard Foreman) in January, 1977. Philip Bosco had replaced Raul Julia as Macheath by that point. Don't remember if Ellen Greene was still Jenny.

This is the best English-Language version and recording of Threepenny there is. Actually, I think it's the ONLY acceptable one. Among the singers on this I can hear Tony Azito, who I later saw in The Pirates of Penzance and Jack Eric Williams, who I later saw in Sweeney Todd and I think Armin Shimerman (Quark from Deep Space Nine and the principal on Buffy).


4. "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" - Dusty Springfield - Dusty vol. 2

Great singer, great song (by Randy Newman). Glad I just got all this Dusty. Sounds like a Newman string arrangement, too.


5. "A Man Who Thought He Was Unmarriagable" - Tom X. Chao - Peculiar Utterance of the Day

I keep all of these downloaded on here. Listen to Tom's PUotD at THIS SITE RIGHT HERE.


6. "Colors of My Life" - West Coast Branch - Acid and Flowers: 21 Late-60s Psych Rarities

More psychedelia on download. I now have so much of this. I don;t need this much. Not nearly. But every time I listen to the stuff track by track, trying to cull out the dross, each one sounds like something I'd like to keep in a massive random shuffle.

What to do?


7. "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" - Frank Zappa - 200 Motels

It's just as if Donovan himself appeared on my very-own wall-mounted TV screen with words of PEACE, LOVE and ETERNAL COSMIC WISDOM!

Ah, from my favorite side of my favorite album as a REALLY little kid. I had no idea what any of it meant, I just liked the funny music and voices. Didn't get the lines like "His dick is a monster" (from "Daddy Daddy Daddy") and so forth.

Here, Flo, Eddie, and Jim Pons (all previously of The Turtles) enact the temptation and Faustian deal made by former Mothers of Invention singer/bassist Jeff Simmons in high-speed cartoon voices, with symphony orchestra and classical chorus.

[cough, cough] Ahmet Ertegun used this towel as a bathmat six weeks ago at a rancid motel in Orlando, Florida, with the highest MILDEW RATING of any commercial lodging facility within the territorial limits of the United States (naturally excluding tropical possessions)!



8. "The Coming War With Russia (excerpt)" - Jack Van Impe

Insane "science" from Christian propagandist Van Impe, trying to connect a quote from the Bible which (in translation) includes the word "element" with the H-Bomb (which, according to him, you can find info on at your local public library by looking up "elements").


9. "Audio Capture 0067" - Ian W. Hill

Several takes of me trying to do a Federal Express radio ad for my voice-over demo reel, false starts and all. Five minutes worth, with brief conversations with Berit in between takes as she makes suggestions and I try to explain what I'm going for. No, I'm not listening to all of this again.


10. "I Used To Think My Right Hand Was Uglier Than My Left" - Ken Nordine - Word Jazz

Poetry and jazz, poetry as jazz, jazz poetry. I'm not sure this is Nordine on vocals here, though. Doesn't sound like him -- sounds like his words and style, but not his voice. Not deep enough. Maybe just speaking higher here.


Enough then, got it done. Most of what's coming up immediately are things like sound effects I created for the Caveman Robot show (the lab door closing; Jorge Cordova multitracked and heavily-echoed yelling "Spree!") or more Tom X. Chao.


I've been fixing up more photos from my shows in Photoshop and posting them on my Flickr photostream, and have also created a set for images from my shows, for those who are interested. Enjoy.





I get to live my dream as a noir "hero" (really, here, a noir "fall guy") in this publicity photo for World Gone Wrong that has nothing to do with the show but iconography, as Bill Mist with Stacia French as Christina Wright, femme fatale.

Ahmet Ertegun is dead. He was 83 years old.


I wanted to say/write something about his importance in the music I love, but That Little Round-Headed Boy did it first and better here. Well worth reading.


And the photo here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger..., which I'd never seen before, really got to me -- here are two of the men responsible for it all. If they had John Hammond in there they'd practically have the perfect trifecta.


I recently acquired the Atlantic R&B Greatest Hits 1952-1974 albums, which are essential, and which will get a workout this weekend.


Unmentioned in any obits I've seen as yet is Charles Mingus' work at Atlantic (albums mostly produced by Ahmet's brother Nesuhi, I believe), which matters more to me than the Coltrane that keeps coming up.


Thanks for all those sides, Ahmet.